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Playing With Fire
Derek Landy
Meet Skulduggery Pleasant: detective, sorcerer, warrior.Oh yes. And dead.With Serpine dead, the world is safe once more.At least, that’s what Valkyrie and Skulduggery think, until the notorious Baron Vengeous makes a bloody escape from prison, and dead bodies and vampires start showing up all over Ireland.With Baron Vengeous after the deadly armour of Lord Vile, and pretty much everyone out to kill Valkyrie, the daring detective duo face their biggest challenge yet. But what if the greatest threat to Valkyrie is just a little closer to home…?
Copyright (#ulink_89a05bd4-b15f-5755-b9cd-5c8768373210)
HarperCollins Children’s Books
A division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
Skulduggery Pleasant rests his weary bones on the web at: www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk (http://www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk)
Derek Landy blogs under duress at www.dereklandy.blogspot.com (http://www.dereklandy.blogspot.com)
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2007
Text copyright © Derek Landy 2008
Illuminated letters copyright © Tom Percival 2008
Skulduggery Pleasant logo
HarperCollins Publishers
Skulduggery Pleasant
© Derek Landy
Cover design © blacksheep-uk.com (http://blacksheep-uk.com)
Cover illustration © Tom Percival
Derek Landy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks
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Source ISBN: 9780007257058
Ebook Edition © ISBN: 9780007302123
Version: 2018-12-06
This book is dedicated to my family – because otherwise I’d never hear the end of it …
Nadine: warm, kind and considerate. I am all of these things.
Audrey: the greatest thrill of your life is probably the fact that I’myour brother.
Ivan: meaningless words such as “brilliant”, “amazing” and “inspirational” have been used to describe me, but not nearly enough.
If any of you thought that there’d be anything sincere or heartfelt inyour dedications, allow me a moment to quietly laugh at you …
Because the heartfelt sincerity is reserved for my nana.
Chic, this book is also dedicated to you, for all the love and support you’ve shown me over the years. I love you much more than any of your other grandchildren do, I swear.
Contents
Cover (#u99c69ba7-18f9-5df1-bad0-d0db7a10ecf9)
Title Page (#u0d44bebc-6286-5835-bb23-163f6b8270e1)
Copyright (#ue6eae510-afd3-522c-b55d-69bbaf63f432)
Dedication (#uda8895c4-165b-5a2e-892f-e54980e79044)
Chapter 1: Hanging Around (#u55177a5c-8cb6-53ed-a617-7ea6590ef6bc)
Chapter 2: Killer On The Loose (#ucfa44ff7-9c6f-5f64-be58-8268ae311e32)
Chapter 3: Vengeous (#u7c7048f7-7731-5aea-9b0e-1c56335ceab9)
Chapter 4: The Beauty, The Beast (#uae79aee7-c70f-58ae-b1d4-402db4d614c5)
Chapter 5: The Terror Of London (#u1bd4105c-8d34-5a65-82da-d8f5443f96f4)
Chapter 6: Fireballs In The Park (#u4e1f6de6-93a8-5d65-8d6d-71108cb6eb48)
Chapter 7: Unwelcome Visitors (#u14215fdd-665f-59b0-bf42-e7419d082168)
Chapter 8: Billy-Ray Sanguine (#uf1ebb781-4c53-5454-9eee-bd7b400df823)
Chapter 9: The Hidden Room (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 10: The Armour Of Lord Vile (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 11: The Terrifying Brain-Sucker Of London (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12: Barfight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13: Roarhaven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14: Springing Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15: Point Blank (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16: The Switch (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17: Grave Robbing (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18: Old Enemies (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19: On The Run (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20: Under The Ground (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21: Donning Darkness (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22: Blood And Shadows (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23: Elephants And Bunnies (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24: Argus (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 25: A Smattering Of Slaughtering (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 26: Murder In The New Morgue (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 27: Rise Of The Grotesquery (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 28: Good Guys Convene (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 29: Picking Up A Tail (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 30: Fight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 31: The Edgley Family Reunion Thing (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 32: Shadow Shards (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 33: The Calm Before The Storm (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 34: Unfinished Business (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 35: Attack Of The Vampires (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 36: Giant Spider Madness (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 37: Tooth And Claw (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 38: Those About To Die … (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 39: Facing Vengeous (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 40: Fight To The Death (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 41: Billy-Ray Sanguine’s Erstwhile Employer (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 42: Bad Things (#litres_trial_promo)
Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)
The Skulduggery Pleasant series (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
(#ulink_cdba1fc8-7d18-5904-aac8-99da27289863)
alkyrie Cain hit the parapet and tumbled, unable to stop herself, and with a panicked gasp she disappeared off the edge.
The church tower stood high and proud, looking out over Dublin City. The night breeze was brisk and carried snatches of laughter from the street below. It was a long way down.
A man in a tattered coat walked up to the edge and peered over. He smirked.
“This is insulting,” he said. “Don’t they know how dangerous I am? I am very, very dangerous. I’m a killer. I’m a trained killing machine. And still, they send you. A child.”
Valkyrie felt her grip on the ledge loosen. She ignored the goading of the man standing above her, and looked around for something else to grab on to. She looked everywhere but down. Down was where the street was, where the long drop and the sudden stop was. She didn’t want to look down. She didn’t want anything to do with down right now.
“What age are you?” the man continued. “Thirteen? What kind of responsible adult sends a thirteen-year-old child to stop me? What kind of thinking is that?”
Valkyrie swung herself gently towards the tower, planting her feet against a small buttress. The fear started to work through her and she felt herself freeze up. She closed her eyes against the oncoming wave of paralysis.
The man was Vaurien Scapegrace, currently wanted in five countries for various counts of attempted murder. He hunkered down at the edge and smiled happily.
“I am turning murder into an art form. When I – when I kill, I’m actually painting a big, big picture, using blood and, and … messiness. You know?”
Below Valkyrie, the city twinkled.
“I’m an artist,” Scapegrace continued. “Some people don’t appreciate that. Some people don’t recognise true talent when they see it. And that’s fine. I’m not bitter. My time will come.”
“Serpine tried to bring the Faceless Ones back,” Valkyrie managed to say. Her fingers were burning and the muscles in her legs were screaming at her. “We stopped him. We’ll stop you, too.”
He laughed. “What, you think I want the old gods to walk the earth once again? Is that it? You think Nefarian Serpine was my leader? I’m not one of those nutbag disciples, all right? I’m my own man.”
Valkyrie had one chance, but she needed to be calm to take advantage of it. Her powers, limited though they were, were Elemental – the manipulation of earth, air, fire and water. But at this stage of her training they didn’t work when she was panicking.
“So if you don’t want the Faceless Ones to return,” she said, “what do you want? Why are you doing this?”
He shook his head. “You wouldn’t understand. It’s grown-up stuff. I just want a little appreciation for who I am, that’s all. That’s not much to ask, is it? But of course, you wouldn’t know. You’re just a kid.” He shrugged. “Oh, well. Time to die.” He reached down to shove her.
